Impassioned Indifference

Prince Harry married Meghan Markle last weekend, and my social media feed exploded. There was representation at every point on the spectrum, from full-on gushing joy to full-on raging hatred. The joy I get – a royal wedding is a spectacle, many people love a princess story (whether it’s good is its own debate, but why kill someone else’s buzz?). The hate I also get – sort of. A rare few seethed, genuinely, about the massive cost to taxpayers, but most were just looking for reasons to mock, denigrate, and the like. Haters gotta hate, after all, and it’s an unfortunate price of fame and an eternal part of culture. Even the most sainted people in the world have their detractors, and fairness and legitimacy rarely matter.

The ends of the spectrum washed by me as business-as-usual, as in “I barely noticed, other than for blogging purposes.” My own interest in the wedding and the couple, other than a wee bit of “they look happy, good for them,” derives from a – the fact that I’m a fan of Suits, the TV series in which Markle co-starred and which just wrapped its seventh season, and b – an odd fascination in the crazy hats and “fascinators” (pun intended, obviously) that women wear to such events.

Until, that is, I witnessed more proclamations of “I don’t care” than I could count.

A bit of unsolicited advice: If you don’t care, taking the time to post that you don’t care isn’t particularly convincing. Vehemently declaring your indifference, even more so. Indifference combined with mockery? Well, guess what? That’s not indifference – that’s on the hater side of the spectrum.

True indifference doesn’t speak of a subject. True indifference doesn’t virtue-signal by declaring itself out to others. True indifference doesn’t even devote much thought to the subject. Idle curiosity, sure. A bit of attention as part of the broader absorption of news – it is a significant event in the eyes of millions, and that alone makes it newsworthy – is fine and expected, but not necessary. True indifference is the honey badger. True indifference is Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard in The Fugitive. True indifference notices something, shrugs, and moves on to something else. True indifference is Marvin in Pulp Fiction.

You don’t need to have an opinion on everything. Moreso, you don’t need to declare to the world that you don’t have an opinion on something. If asked, sure, you can do the Marvin, and we’d probably all be better off, Vince Vega’s carelessness notwithstanding, if our opinions were fewer (and better-informed). But, please, don’t go out of your way to tell us all how little you care. Find something better to do with your time, because claiming you don’t care is a pretty clear signal that you do.

I am twice-retired, a former rocket engineer and a former small business owner. At the very least, it makes for interesting party conversation. I'm also a life-long libertarian, I engage in an expanse of entertainments, and I squabble for sport.

Nowadays, I spend a good bit of my time arguing politics and editing this website.